Chemical weapons inspectors visit 3 Syria sites

By Diaa Hadid
Associated Press

Published: Thursday, Oct. 10 2013 12:00 a.m. MDT

A Syrian refugee, who lives in Lebanon, cries while waiting for some of her relatives to board a bus to Beirut International Airport for a flight to Germany where they have been accepted for temporary resettlement, at the International Organization for Migration office in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013. (Hussein Malla, Associated Press)

BEIRUT — International inspectors have so far visited three sites linked to Syria's chemical weapons program, a spokesman said Thursday, as the team races to destroy the country's stockpile and delivery systems amid a raging civil war.

Underscoring the complexity of the mission, a regime warplane bombed the rebel-held town of Safira, an activist group said. A regime-controlled military complex believed to include chemical weapons facilities is located near the town.

The inspectors are to visit more than 20 sites around the country as part of the disarmament mission. The facilities they inspected in the past 10 days have been in government-held areas, making them fairly easy to reach, said Michael Luhan, spokesman for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Operating on rare consensus, the U.N. has mandated the OPCW to rid Syria of its stockpile by mid-2014 — the tightest deadline ever given to the OPCW. It's also the first conducted amid ongoing fighting. Syria's conflict, which erupted in March 2011, pits disorganized armed rebels against forces loyal to the regime of Bashar Assad.

A physically disabled Syrian refugee sits in his wheelchair at the International Organization for Migration office as he waits with his family to board a bus to Beirut International Airport for a flight to Germany where they have been accepted for temporary resettlement, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013. The dozens of Syrians heading to Germany on Thursday were the second batch of the 4,000 refugees that Germany has accepted to receive on two-year visas while Syria remains mired in a two-year civil war that has killed over 100,000 people, displaced 5 million within their own country, and prompted another 2 million people to flee the country as refugees. (Hussein Malla, Associated Press)

At some point, the 27-member team may have to cross rebel-held territory to reach other locations linked to Syria's chemical weapons program. The U.N. hopes to organize cease-fires between rebels and government forces to ensure safe passage.

Shifting front lines crisscross the country, divided into a patchwork of rebel- and regime-held areas.

On Thursday, a regime warplane struck the town of Safira, killing at least 16 people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which obtains its information through a network of activists on the ground. The group did not know what was hit.

Amateur video said to show the aftermath of the Safira airstrike was posted online later Thursday. The video showed men and boys hauling a blanket filled with body parts onto a jeep where another two charred bodies already lay.

A physically disabled Syrian refugee is carried by a relative to board a bus to Beirut International Airport for a flight to Germany where they have been accepted for temporary resettlement, at the International Organization for Migration office in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013. (Hussein Malla, Associated Press)

"Who is this?" one man can be heard asking. "By God, we don't know brother," another responded. The video also showed twisted metal, blood splattered on the floor and smashed concrete in the area of the strike.

Safira is southeast of the heavily contested city of Aleppo, Syria's largest. The military complex near the town is believed to include an underground facility for chemical weapons production and storage, said Amy Smithson, a chemical weapons expert at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, a U.S.-based think tank.

The Observatory said six people were killed in another airstrike, near the town of Manbij, also in the area.

In Aleppo, six people were killed by rebel fire, the official Syrian news agency SANA said.

Clashes also broke out between al-Qaida fighters from a group calling itself the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and Kurdish rebels in the northern border town of Azaz, the Observatory reported.

Syrian refugees say goodbye to relatives at the International Organization for Migration office before some board a bus to Beirut International Airport for a flight to Germany where they have been accepted for temporary resettlement, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013. (Hussein Malla, Associated Press)

In Beirut on Thursday, a lucky few Syrians flew to Germany, where they were accepted for temporary resettlement.

Men and women sobbed and hugged as relatives said goodbye to each other, helping them haul overstuffed suitcases onto a bus leading to the airport.

They were 106 of the 4,000 refugees that Germany has accepted to receive on two-year visas, said Roberta Russo of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

They remain a tiny minority of the 2 million Syrians now registered as refugees. Another 5 million Syrians are displaced within their own country because of the conflict, which has killed more than 100,000 Syrians.

Russo called on donor countries to provide more aid to Syria's neighbors, who are hosting over 97 percent of refugees.

She says they've only received one-third of the $1.7 billion in aid the U.N. is asking for to help refugees, particularly in Lebanon.